


Dress Up

by BsuKie



Category: Sonic Boom (Cartoon), Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Coming Out, Episode: Learning New Things About Ourselves, F/F, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I would add more platonic relationships but the tags would get too long, M/M, Nonbinary Character, Trans Character, asume everyone are friends, no beta we die like men, not everyone appears at first, she deserved it, yes rouge is in sonic boom in this fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:13:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29623266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BsuKie/pseuds/BsuKie
Summary: Sonic and his friends have been cordially invited to a human fundraising event, nothing new there. The only catch? They've got to stick to the human way, which means that clothing regulations are a thing they'll have to follow.No one seems to mind, except Sonic, of course. Everyone knows how much he dislikes wearing pants on any given occasion after all.It's just that no one knows why so, not really.A story about self-learning, understanding, and friendship of different kinds.On the other hand, there's more to Shadow the Hedgehog that already meets the eye.
Relationships: Amy Rose & Rouge the Bat, Amy Rose & Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy Rose & Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower & Shadow the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower & Sonic the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat & Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog & Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog/Sonic the Hedgehog
Comments: 10
Kudos: 58





	1. Suit yourself

**Author's Note:**

> oWo What's this?
> 
> A Sonic fanfiction? In this day and age? About nonbinary representation?  
> Who could've known, huh?  
> This story will have four chapters at the very least! I believe that non-binary stuff is more needed in order to bring awareness to it, so why not using one of my favorite comfort characters to do it? I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. It might not be a perfect piece of work, as I'm still learning, but hey! Doing something is better than doing nothing at all, right?

Sonic groaned as he walked away quickly, crossing his arms in denial. Tails trailed right after him out of the dressing room they'd been at, trying his best to make a convincing argument. 

"Come on Sonic, you have to!" 

Or an attempt of one, at least.

The hedgehog let out an indignant huff. "I've told you, I'm not doing it!

"But it's the only way!" replied Tails. 

"I said no! I'm _not_ wearing pants, out of the question!" 

Luckily for everyone, the dressing room zone was desolated, probably because it was lunchtime and few people went shopping at this hour, so no one was able to witness the strange exchange the two Mobians were having. It was probably for the best, things like these usually ended up on social media, and it was always a pain to deal with the neighbors asking if they had seen the newest embarrassing video of the month.

There was so much dignity one could be stripped off of before it became an issue. 

"But we all have to do it, and it's just for one night." Tails said.

The hedgehog didn't waver on his opinion. "Well, tough luck. You're not the one with superspeed here, are you? Have you ever _tried_ to run at 700 miles per hour? With _pants_ ? Don't you remember what happened _last time_?

"Well-"

"Three words, Tails, three words. Friction, fire, and burned butt."

Both shivered at the memory.

"Uh, that's four words Sonic, not-"

Sonic continued talking as if he hadn't been interrupted. "Three words that should _never_ go together but _are_ , and all because of that... _that-"_ He pointed a tad too dramatically to the fancy suit that came included with a pair of pants Tails had been holding for him to try on. "-absolute _abomination_ everybody wants me to wear. What happened to free rights of expression, huh?" 

The hedgehog crossed his arms even tighter around himself. "My decision is absolute. _No pants."_

Tails sighed. He had the feeling this would happen. When Sonic got his head onto something, it would always be a real challenge to make him change of mind, especially when it came to trousers. To be completely honest, the fox did get where the fuss his big brother was coming from, _but he couldn't say that right now._

He and Amy had convinced Sonic to come with them to the mall under the excuse of them needing to buy a thing or two and _then_ lure him into a clothes shop for him to try the formal attire he was supposed to wear. Chaos knew that there was no other way of convincing Sonic to come anywhere to try anything on if not with a trick or two. It was a miracle that he was even using a kerchief in the first place really, as dull and boring as it was.

The whole team would soon be attending a charity event they'd been invited to, but apparently, human customs were a tad different from those of Mobians, particularly when it came to the ridiculous amount of clothing regulations they had. Long story short, Sonic and his friends would have to be fully clothed for the event, which was surprising news for all of them, as it had never been a requirement before. Apparently, being covered in fur didn't fill up all the boxes and regulations they needed to take part in the gathering.

It's not that Mobians didn't wear clothes, a lot of them did no matter the species nor the gender, but it wasn't exactly a need.

Just when Tails thought that Sonic was done talking, the other started to ramble, as he always did whenever he felt nervous about something or alternatively, wanted to get away as far away as possible from it.

Tails felt sympathy for his brother, he truly did. 

"What's even wrong with going around without them?" Sonic started "There has never been any problem before, has it? Pants are so stupid anyway, who needs them? Half of them look horrible with my fur color, and the other half don't even fit right! Like, who's idea was it to make everything so tight and uncomfortable? And-and! What would we do if there was an attack, huh? Apologize with an, oh _I'm sorry the place is wrecked and I didn't do anything about it, it's just your fault for not letting me go pant-less when I have the perfect right to be?"_

Sonic gestured into the air, circling in place left and right _"_ How many more people do I have to save to earn the right to not wear pants, huh? How many, Tails? How many is _enough_? 

Tails sighed. "Sonic, don't you think you're being a bit..." he paused and thought for a way to say it delicately. "...unreasonable?

Sonic turned around and gasped like he'd been burnt. Too much for being delicate. "Unreasonable? _Unreasonable?_ Are you hearing yourself? I won't even be able to run a tiny miny hundred meters with that thing wrapped around my precious legs!" He said, petting them lightly. 

Tails rolled his eyes and tried to think of the facts at hand. Maybe if he was reasonable enough, Sonic would be willing to give it a go. Maybe.

"But...you won't have to, right? Run, I mean." before Sonic could reply, Tails continued, nearly stepping over his words. "It's just for the night, not even- all night. I'm sure you'll just have to go in there, shake a few hands like always, and you'll be out of there quickly. And, uh-"

The fox noticed that Sonic was listening. Uncomfortably so, but listening, which meant that he must be doing something right, so he kept going.

"There's going to be a lot of security at this organization, you know how humans are. They always have a lot of defenses at these kinds of things, and-and we beat Eggman yesterday, remember? He usually takes at least three or four days to come back, which means that he won't have time to attack the place this time. And even if he did, with the time he's had to prepare? He'd probably end up making a low-quality junk of metal anyways."

He smiled reassuringly at the older one, something quite odd for him to do, having in mind it was usually Sonic who comforted Tails when needed be. "It would be no measure for us, as always!"

"The chances of _actually_ engaging in a fight are very slim, and the chances of us losing are even less. The only thing you'll have to do is-" And truly, this was the most difficult part of all. "-well. Not...run for a couple of...hours?"

Sonic stayed in silence, shifting to the side, tapping both his foot and fingers, and avoiding eye contact with his little brother like his feet depended on it. He knew he had the short end of the stick in the argument, he was simply being stubborn.

And so, Tails kept pushing. "You can do that, right? For this one night, Sonic?" he asked. "For the people in need?" Now, Tails knew that this was a dirty card, but it had to be done. If the guilt-trip didn't work, he doubted much more would.

Sonic groaned, shifting even further away. "I'll think about it..." 

Tails blinked. Then his face beamed up.

"I said I'll think about it, I'm not promising anything!" said Sonic.

But Sonic's protests fazed straight through Tails, as he flapped away out of the dressing room common area and into the clothes zone, not before handing Sonic the suit he'd been holding. " Thank you, Sonic! I'll let Amy know you're willing to give it a try so she can bring the rest of stuff!" he said, already out of sight, leaving no possibility for take-backs. 

_Smart move,_ thought Sonic regrettably. He was already thinking of taking his open mind back to wherever it had come from.

Sonic murmured to himself through droopy eyelids. "Uhuh. Awesome." 

Not even five seconds later, a high-pitched scream made its way right into his ears. 

_That was fast._

" _Just great_."

His triangled ears twitched, folding themselves backward just enough to understand how much he was regretting it already. 

Knowing Amy, she already had a bunch of different categorized outfits prepared and ready to wear. If he stayed, he would be risking himself a full display filled with details he wouldn't understand about why would what go better with what or not, and many, many other explanations he was so not ready to listen to. 

Sonic simply wanted to get over with this as fast as possible, not make it even _more_ excruciating than it needed to be. That in mind, he spun around and let himself slide in between the curtains of one of the individual changing rooms, safe from view. 

There were three big mirrors, angled so the customers could see themselves fully from all perspectives, which made sense. 

It wasn't what Sonic needed right now.

Sonic dropped his head, eyeing the whole body suit Tails had given him a moment ago without enthusiasm in defeat. He sighed again. Better make this quick, right? The sooner, the better, as they say. In his case it made it ironic, but oh well. 

The hedgehog gave a superspeed twirl, shifting the air around for a moment before staring at himself in the mirror, now fully clothed.

Huh. Look at that. He'd never realized how easy it would be to change each morning if he'd actually become nuts enough one day to wear stuff like this to go to work or whatever did normal people do.

He stared at his reflection for exactly one second before looking away, a growing frown on his brow. The familiar pang in his chest was already taking form in knowing ways.

He looked _good._ As always, Amy was the best when it came to these things. It was her first choice when the trio had went into the shop, it had been the first red flag that had sent Sonic almost running out of there.

But that was the thing, he looked _good._ He looked...

Something in Sonic cringed inwardly.

_...handsome._

He looked at himself and he felt handsome. The _man way_ kind of handsome. _The "oh, you're such a handsome boy" kind of handsome._

Sonic liked how the suit adjusted to his body, as well as how the simple grey-ish suit suited him like a glove, never better said- but it was exactly because of that felt _so wrong._

_And he didn't even know why._

He'd run out of justifiable excuses.

_What was he supposed to say? That pants weren't the real problem here? Not even the embarrassing story he'd much rather not recall from that one time?_

_That the real problem was beneath his skin and muscle and bones? That this made him feel uncomfortable in ways that made a hole in his heart, that made his insides twist and turn in ways he didn't even understand?_

_He didn't understand it. He didn't want to think about it. But how was he supposed to successfully ignore this when he was being forced to wear the stuff that would make him unable to stop...feeling_ **_it_ ** _all the darn time?_

The blue hedgehog closed his eyes. He stood in place, sucking a gulp of air as remembered where he was. With _who_ he was. 

The voice of Tails hit him back to reality.

**_"For the people in need?"_ **

"Okay, okay, I get it," said Sonic, grounding himself in place, just as some familiar steps made their way nearby. "Let's do this"

Amy's muffled voice spoke up. "Sonic? Where are you? I'm pretty sure we've got everything we need. Sonic?"

"I'm here, Ames," said Sonic, signaling his location as he opened the curtains of his changing room. He spotted his two friends without trouble, both half-drowned in a mountain of clothes

"Sonic! Oh my gosh, I'm so excited! You've got to try everything. First, I..."

By the seventh word of the sentence, Sonic was already gone for. Amy's work and dedication were worth being admired, but _chaos_. Both brothers exchanged a knowing look of understanding.

Today was going to be a long day.

* * *

The noise of a bubbly's phone's notification alerted the owner, who made a grab for it. Several passwords out of the way, the cellphones main home screen lit up. She scrolled down and read the notifications she'd just about received, eyes opening slightly. She chuckled to herself. 

Her caramel voice dipped in sly amusement chirped from the living room's sofa.

"Hey sunshine, you aren't going to guess who else is going to attend the fundraiser."

Leaning over Rouge's kitchen counter which was connected directly to the living room, Shadow grumbled.

Rouge, who had been leaning down with her head on one of the armrests, pulled herself up enough to watch the black and red hedgehogs' neutral yet somehow permanently irked expression morph into a worse version of it, one that screamed annoyance in big, dark capital letters.

" _You've got to be kidding me_ "


	2. Runaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sonic needs to get away, Amy helps, and he comes to terms with something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second part of the chapter was only going to be a paragraph at first, but then it became the second half of the chapter, so...  
> The chapters aren't to be very long. I'm having trouble with my procrastination habit, so I've decided that I'd get more done sending more chapters with less content to get the whole thing going.  
> Either way, enjoy!

To anyone around the area, it was a pleasant morning. It was a sunny day, one of those people take advantage of to go to the beach or use it as an excuse to simply go outside for the sake of it. It was warm but not hot, there was a comfortable light breeze that contrasted with the rays of the sun, but it wasn't freezing up to the point where one would have made good use of a sweater.

Objectively speaking, it _was_ a nice day, and perhaps it would have also been one to the blue hedgehog sitting with his two friends at the mall's cafeteria, if not by the silent dilemma that was troubling his mind.

After nearly two hours of trying one thing after another to back to the previous outfit that looked the same except for the slightly darker collar, the trio left the clothes shop with Sonic's chosen attire, and a need to take a long break. Said break was decided to be spent recharging energy via a good meal, as each one of the three friends chose a different thing to have. 

Despite the warm weather, Amy ordered a new kind of strawberry tea the place was offering with a very nice-looking fruit cake. Tails chose a simple sandwich with orange juice, and Sonic his old good to go, ride or die chilli dog meal. 

Nearly five minutes in, Sonic's chilli dog was still untouched. 

"Sonic?" Amy's voice spoke up. 

Both her and Tails had been having a conversation about the upcoming event to pass the time. It hadn't surprised her when Sonic didn't join the conversation as well, she knew that Sonic got bored easily with those kinds of subjects and usually preferred to stand apart from the sidelines instead. 

However, what _had_ caught her attention was the fact that her friend hadn't even picked up on the fact that his hotdog was already there ready for him to scoff it down his throat at the count of two like he usually did. Sonic was completely spaced out, green eyes staring at someplace in the distance, his mind far, far away.

When the blue hedgehog didn't show signs of acknowledgment, she looked at the young fox in front of her, eyes questioning. Tails shrugged in response, shifting to the side to tap his brothers shoulder.

With that, Sonic snapped out of the trance he'd been in with a jump. "Huh? Wh-?" It took him a moment to come back from his mind space. When he did, he saw his friends eyeing him strangely.

"What?" he asked, taken back by their silence and strange looks on their faces.

"You were zoned out." Tails said. "For a while"

"Oh."

_Oh._

" Yeah, I guess. Uh, I'm just tired" Sonic said casually, adding a laugh for good measure. "All that wordsplaining took in half of my life force." 

Amy chirped in "That has never stopped you from eating a chilli dog before, though."

Sonic looked down at his plate. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't surprised to see it there. When had he missed anyone bringing it? 

The hedgehog angled his head _. I must have been pretty out of it._

Without wasting any more time, he took a mouthful of the condimented hotdog.

"So? Is everything okay?" she said, a little worry slipping into her tone.

_Why, isn't that the golden question,_ thought Sonic. _Get a grip._

"Of course, Ames-" he said after swallowing the last bite down. "-Of course. _Not_ . Are you seriously asking me if I'm okay after two hours of _pure torture_? If my legs weren't as resilient as they are, they'd need crutches."

_Reflect, that usually works._

"How can you _stand this_ every time you go shopping, anyway? Standing and staring? What's so fun about it? Don't tell me you're hiding some sort of power from us, now?" his tone of voice changed to make a bad imitation of a news reporter."Amy, forever undefeated by the most powerful of villains... _boredom_."

A good-natured, cheeky grin crawled up his face.

Amy's eyes softened and scoffed, somewhat amused "For one, I don't _stand_ _it_ . I _enjoy it_ , Sonic, which is what you should be doing! That's what shopping for clothes is about, silly. You have to check out what you like, see if it's something you'd like to represent how you feel."

"Uhuh. I think I'd enjoy better far from here, like, straight from home. From the sofa, specifically."

Tails chuckled into his palm as he watched the exchange. Amy sighed. "I don't know why I try"

Sonic scooped closer to Amy, throwing his arm over her shoulders. "Because you're a... wonderful, fantastic, _amazing_ , incredible, have I mentioned extr-?"

Amy laughed, pushing Sonic away playfully. "Chaos, cut that off. I get it. Yes, I am the _so extraordinary_ friend who's going to let you go about your day now, because I know that you're dying to get out of here, right? We still have to buy the stuff we told you to trick you about, and something tells me you're not going to be interested in the slightest." 

"You know me well." Sonic said with a grin, already up on his feet, stretching himself. "Meet you guys later for movie night?"

"Sure!" said Tails, nodding. "Can you buy the chips I like? Those ones that-

"-that are egg flavored?

"Yup, those ones. They've got this giant egg for a loggo, you know which."

"Questionable, but will do, little bro. If you have a stomach ache later, don't blame me"

"Technically, I can, though." Tails said "All with you being the older brother and everything"

Sonic put his hand on his hip.

"Do you or do you not want your chips?"

"Can't say I don't." 

"Good. See you both in a while?"

Tails smirked, much like his brother did. "Yeah. And Sonic?"

Sonic stared, brow arched in response.

"Thanks" Tails said, dropping the joking tone in his voice. "See you later!"

They smiled at each other gently as Sonic tilted his head in farewell, Amy watching the exchange with a kind smile as well.

_Brothers._

Two seconds later, the only evidence of the hedgehog's prior presence was a gust of wind that flickered with Amy's skirt lightly before dissipating. The now down to two duo stared at the blue blur that zipped away into the distance before it disappeared. 

"There he goes. Oh well," she said. " What was it that you wanted to buy, Tails?"

The pink hedgehog became quickly lost at the fox's explanation, just as she expected. It was alright nonetheless, Tails was already guiding the way, mumbling out loud.

She started following her friend and stopped. She stared once more into the distance, faintly wondering if there truly was something else bothering Sonic. He'd been a bit more off of himself today, which could be blamed on a bit of mental tiredness.

She'd wait for a bit and see before jumping to any conclusion. If there was something anyone who knew Sonic understood of him, was that he was someone that needed space to himself and to deal with his issues. She's learned that the hard way in her early years. 

As for right now, there were things to search for and not enough time to worry about things she wasn't sure about. 

* * *

Sonic, somewhere north in between the forest that surrounded his village, dashed through the soon-to-be evening, careful of not stepping the wrong way and ending with an extra bruise for the day. The forest didn't have a path or anything like that, but Sonic had traveled the place so much, that he'd grown to learn the grand space of terrain by heart. 

Running through the forest wasn't a must, but it was a good distraction full of obstacles like trees and rocks that made a simple runaround much more interesting. More challenging in a fun sort of way. 

It wasn't a mystery that Sonic liked to run, even if it wasn't a firm requirement for him to do, fights and sense of duty aside. That in and out of itself wasn't a surprise, if his name was anything to go by. His usual smile, however, had shifted itself into something else, something sad around the edges.

The hedgehog realized midway that he'd forgotten the suit back with Amy and Tails, not minding it one bit. He wasn't in the mood to deal with the source of his confusing, conflicted feelings, after all.

Well. It's not like the suit was the one thing bothering him, but it certainly had been the one to surface the many others he'd been trying to push away whenever they'd decided to make an appearance in the worst of ways.

Right now, the only thought he could muster was that he needed to get away. Somewhere nice, comfortably away from anyone's stares. Home, probably.

Amy had given him a free pass for the evening, which he appreciated. After years of trying to figure out who they were to one another, they'd finally found a common ground. They were friends, good ones. They understood each other more than ever now that the strange sort of anonymity was no longer there, which worked perfectly for him on days like these.

He wondered how'd he make it up to her, eventually deciding to cede his chosen movie night turn to her later that night. 

In a failed effort to shut off the weird feeling in his chest, he thought about what she'd choose. Something cheesy, for sure. She had always liked romantic dramas. Maybe something that ended in a cute wedding and a happy ending. Everyone liked happy endings, didn't they? A girl and a guy marrying each other, as if that were the solution to life's problems. 

Sonic sighed.

Just as one knew that balls were round or that for the most part, trees were green, it was a fact of life that the hero liked to smile. More often than not his smiles went go hand in hand with smart remarks and annoying puns that would effectively and against expectation throw his opponents off their balance. His smiles were a good offense as much as a defense. It could be a sign for the good guys to understand that everything was okay and, on the other side, a sign of unconditional confidence that helped himself remember in those darkest of moments where he stood alone, that it truly would be alright.

Occasionally, when the hedgehog ran with none other than himself, he let the muscles of his face relax into a neutral expression and take a break. To take in what was, what is, and breathe. Everyone deserved some time free of expectations, after all, even those whose stakes grew a couple of hundreds of floors high.

In his opinion, this was one of the extra good things that running at the speed of sound provided a guy.

There weren't many beings capable of keeping up with his feet, not many alive, save from a certain someone that should have taken brooding as a long-term job. That's why that on occasions like these when there wasn't an ongoing emergency going on, without people to save nor enemies to defeat, when running became running for the sake of running and nothing else, he let down that one last line of defense without the feeling of judgment down on his shoulders. 

So he ran, taking in the breeze and the dust, until a familiar place appeared on sight.

Sonic screeched to a stop when he spotted his shack from the distance.

The hedgehog was feeling as if he was racing his mind for the win, but even he knew that one couldn't outrun his head.

His thoughts were reeling and his emotions were doing little to help on the matter. The words Amy had said kept replaying in between the corners of his skull. 

_"That's what shopping for clothes is about, silly"_ she'd said _"You have to check out what you like, see if it's something you'd like to represent how you feel."_

**_"...see if it's something you'd like to represent how you feel."_ **

How _did_ he feel _?_

_How was he supposed to know? He didn't!_

The only thing that he could make sense of, was that he'd been walking nonstop in circles recently. The right words felt _wrong_ . The wrong ones felt _right_ ? And against everything he wanted himself to be, he was scared because he couldn't understand what was so wrong and what so right and how to make sense of it, _for the love of chaos_.

Sonic the Hedgehog was a symbol of certainty, the someone you'd always have a hand there to hold yourself to, a place you'd always knew to find yourself certain to keep ongoing.

But Sonic didn't feel certain. Sonic the Hedgehog was lost in himself. What did that say of who he was? Of what he was supposed to be?

What do you do when you've lost sight of who you think you've always been? _What, then_? 

Sonic sighed.

The answer was easy if you used the right perspective. The thing was that, well. He hadn't wanted to use the right perspective because he didn't want to deal with it, not when Eggman was here each every other day trying to take over the world and what-not, and whoever else who decided it was a good day to become a supervillain to make his day harder than it should.

But now? The cat was out of the bag. The bean out of the can, or-or however did the saying go like. He'd spent so much time waiting for _it_ to go away, but it hadn't. It had only grown, and now it was exploding in his face and guts.

Which is why the only answer left to do was to figure it out.

A lot to figure out, whatever it was that he had.

Sonic's expression grew determined. He would. 

He'd be as fine as a daisy in no time.

After all, he was the fastest thing alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, what do you think so far? If you have any ideas or constructive criticism, I'm all for it. Have a great day, user!  
> Sonic isn't really sure what he's feeling yet, so there'll be a slow introduction first. I hope you'll like it!

**Author's Note:**

> What did you think? Did it catch your attention? If you got any ideas, constructive criticism, or perhaps a good ol' key smash instead, go for it!  
> Have an awesome day, awesome person of the world!


End file.
